


Leave Me (Like You Found Me)

by puellamagi



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Not Slash, Season 2 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-14
Updated: 2015-01-14
Packaged: 2018-03-07 13:06:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3174490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puellamagi/pseuds/puellamagi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trying to stretch my writing muscles with some short Sherlock fics based on song titles. These are more explorations of character and emotion than fiction that has any particular narrative. So if you're looking for a coherent story this isn't likely to be your thing. </p>
<p>This one is based on the song of the same name by Wilco.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leave Me (Like You Found Me)

John Hamish Watson was, by all accounts, not a cautious man. He had a reckless streak, a desire for danger and the sweet rush of adrenalin that his sister satisfied by drink and poor relationship choices. Mind you, John did the poor relationship choice thing too, if the rumours were to be believed.

When John met Sherlock Holmes, he was not in a good way. John had a theory about that. Nobody came back from war unchanged. Some withdrew, haunted by the trauma of the battlefield, the faces of those they killed, the screams of their comrades. Others became hardened – they learned that life was so fragile, something that could be snuffed out in an instant that they didn’t want to keep anyone close anymore, be that their lovers, children or friends. But John Watson was different.

He missed it.

John knew this wasn’t healthy. It was hardly normal to feel nostalgia over war, especially for those who got shot. He did it to save a life – always his biggest priority as a doctor, but he was probably a little too reckless. Nonetheless, he came back to London, and was getting by okay, if not actually thriving.

Then Sherlock Holmes came into his life and transformed everything. He had a home in Baker Street. A family in Sherlock, Mrs. Hudson, even Lestrade and Molly. Mycroft was a family member he could do without. If shooting taxi drivers, being kidnapped by psychotic consulting criminals and having his romantic life sabotaged (John supposed he sabotaged it pretty well on his own though).

If there was one thing he wishes he could have said it would have been, “Don’t leave me.”

Failing that, “When you leave me, don’t destroy me in the process.”

And he had blogged, giggled at crime scenes, had people come to the conclusion he and Sherlock were shagging and honestly he got used to that eventually, and tried to make Sherlock eat and sleep like a human being.

But in the end, Sherlock Holmes jumped from the rooftop. And he was alone. Maybe he should have called Mrs. Hudson, gone for that pint with Lestrade, or visited Molly for coffee. But he never did, withdrawing into himself like he did before the war.

John supposed it wasn’t any different to coming back from war. Except this time there was nobody left who could put him back together.


End file.
